the Little Wizard
by hideANDseakHannah
Summary: Neville never got his Hogwarts Letter. A witch comes to him and bargins a life at Hogwarts in exchange for a life a slave to her demands if he didn't follow through on the task she required-him gaining the heart of one Miss Luna Lovegood. Read and Review, please and thank you.
1. Chapter 1

**this is for a challenge :) yay. it's a fairy tale challenge.. I got "the Little Mermaid" (interestingly, my favorite childhood fairy tale) for Neville and Luna. so I am focusing on the whole star crossed lovers from two different worlds. So this is AU Hogwarts. We'll see how it goes. This one makes me a little nervous.**

**hannah xx**

Neville walked slowly to the edge of the water, plopping at the edge so he could reach out, hand skimming the cool surface. He'd always been different than all the kids at school, never fit in, never had friends. His father and mother had been killed years earlier though no one bothered to tell him by whom or why. He was pretty much alone, living in a grubby cottage by the Sound with no one but a grumpy old man (supposedly his great-great uncle or something like that, but Neville wasn't so sure they bore no resemblance whatsoever but that really didn't matter either, he was still stuck there) for company.

Don't be mistaken, Neville wasn't bitter. He wasn't bitter, but he was sad and his sadness was thusly justified in my opinion. With no mother to care for him, father to praise him, friends to laugh with him... well, I'm sure we'd all be rather sad to live this way. Such a lonely life. That's why I'm here though. To mend this story.

"Neville?" I asked after slipping from the edge of the forest a few feet from where he rested to stand at his side, long black hair dancing to the small of my back in the wind and dark eyes flashing venomously as he looked up.

His firm, developed facial features and innocent eyes turned up to me, suddenly colored with confusion. "H-h-how do you know my name?" Poor Neville, that stutter was constantly getting worse. Probably stress.

My head craned backwards and I cackled into the darkening twilight. "I'm Ursula." I answered simply before tilting my head to the side, beautiful face pulling into an eerie smile. "Would you like to leave, little wizard?"

His lips pulled together, forming the straight line of a confused frown. "Wizard?"

"The question, Neville." I responded, feet digging into the sand with irritation. These wizards were always difficult.

Neville looked over his shoulder at the shabby house that was his own and then back at her. He could practically hear his uncle hammering down beers and tossing the cans onto the ground, crunching them under his feet as he trudged to the pantry to grab more. His eyes cut to me and I smiled at the look on his face. I knew what he'd say before he said a word. A slow grin slipped onto my face."Yes."

I pulled a wand from my pocket and handed it to him. "I'll send you to Hogwarts School, but there's a small catch.."

He frowned. "A catch?"

"I have very limited magic, boy, so you must prove your fate. Make this girl love you in three days and you can stay." I told him, using my own wand to conjure the pretty face of a pale blonde wearing no shoes.

His eyebrows knit together. "L-love me?"

I laughed again, just as menacing as the first. "Yes, make her love you. It's a simple chance, really. Under all that dirt you're really a handsome fellow. It shouldn't be that hard."

"I've never so much as had a girl-" He began, but I swept my hands dramatically.

"Deal or no deal." I asked calmly, but it wasn't really a question.

He looked downward at the sand beneath his feet, studying it and then looking to me again. "And if she doesn't love me?"

My smile grew. "Then you work for me." I told him, regarding his features again: muscular arms, long legs, lean body. What a slave to have.

"W-w-w-work?" The stutter was back, he'd really have to work on that.

I didn't respond to his question, merely reared back on my heels, wrapping my arms around my petite waist. "Deal or no deal."

He appraised the waves crashing on the sand, but when his eyes dusted across the landscape to touch the cabin his face contorted seriously. His eyes snapped to mine. "Deal."

I grinned, dropping my arms to either side of my body, but raising my wand arm to point toward him. "You have three days, Neville Longbottom." Then the boy was gone.

**I swear I was writing third person..then this happened. and I kind of like it.**

**it's like can't I just marry Neville and live happily ever after? **

**hannahkk xx**


	2. Chapter 2

**yeah..**

**hk xx**

Neville awoke the next morning, heavy lids blinking slowly, confused by his surroundings. He was tucked into a four poster bead and he could hear the faint snoring of someone else in the room. It was draped in maroon and gold, colors that he recognized to mean something though he didn't know what. As he gained consciousness, he slowly thrust his legs over the side of the bed, pushing the fine blankets from his body and looking at his surroundings. There were four other four poster beds around the room and Neville slipped from the bed, walking slowly across the floor to look at each face. There was a boy with shaggy red hair, one with black and two with brown hair, but one bore a lighting bolt shaped scar across his forehead and was in fact peering up at Neville with a curious frown.

"What happened to you, mate?" The boy inquired, rubbing his forehead as he sat up.

Neville frowned, looking at his reflection in the window pane behind the boy's bed while fighting the urge to repeat the word mate aloud. "Ugh-"

He simply chuckled, taking his glasses and balancing them atop his nose. "You shouldn't let McGonagall see you like that. She might bloody well have a heart attack." He half joked as he stood, walking to his trunk.

Neville nodded, walking back to the bed he'd been in a few minutes before and biting his lip. He didn't know where a bathroom was..hell he didn't even know where he was. How was he supposed to do anything? He knelt down and opened the truck at his feet, looking through it. Inside there was a handful of schoolbooks and a splattering of robes paired with maroon and gold ties. Who wore robes? His hand reached down to his pocket, pulling out the wand he'd been given. He looked down at it, studying it carefully.

"Neville, you seem a bit off." The boy commented from where he was sitting in the window sill, book suspended in his hands.

"How do you know my name?" It came out before Neville could stop it.

He chuckled. "Neville, we've shared a dormitory since first year."

"First year?" Neville questioned in response, rolling the wand between his fingers.

His amused smile darkened. "Neville, what's going on?"

Neville shook his head, standing up and tucking his wand away. His hand lifted, rubbing the back of his head cleverly. He'd thought of a way to get the answers he needed without further questions. "I hit my head last night and I don't know who the bloody hell you are." He said through a smile. "Nor do I know where I am."

"Oh!" The boy said with mild understanding. "You have amnesia!"

And there's Neville's loophole.

* * *

Icy hot water assaulted Neville's body as he slipped down into the bath water to attempt to drive the grime from his body, the only left reminder of his life at his Uncle's as he'd tossed the clothes he'd been wearing when he awoke in the trash. His mind turned over the information Harry had given him as he scraped the dirt from his long limbs.

They were at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry so therefore Neville was a wizard. There were four houses based upon character traits: Ravenclaw the clever, Hufflepuff the kind, Gryffindor the courageous and Slytherin the.. Harry didn't know what exactly they valued. Apparently the Slytherin aren't the best of the lot here. Neville recons they're like the bullies at school, but he really didn't know. Harry told Neville that they were both Gryffindor and as were all of their roommates and anyone else congregating in the tower.

Neville stepped out of the water, now clean, a few minutes later and dried himself quickly before pulling on his robes. Sun was shining through the wide windows near the top of the vaulted ceiling to light up the room and he sighed contently, exhaling into the sunshine. He rolled the sleeves of his shirt up under his robes and then walked from the bathroom back toward the dormitory.

Upon opening the door, Neville found Harry now fully dressed and stacking his books and the red haired boy, scrambling to get his trousers buttoned and white buttoned shirt the same. "Neville!" The red head exclaimed, looking up from the task at hand with a small frown. "Rotten luck about your memory."

Neville stooped down to his trunk again, grabbing the stack of books and slipping them down in a rucksack he found at the bottom of the trunk. He straightened, rubbing the back of his neck. "I guess I'll head down to the Great Hall."

Harry glanced up. "You sure, mate? We'll be ready as soon as Ron here figures out how to get his trousers on." He teased, tossing a balled up piece of parchment Ron's way.

Neville nodded. "I'll just follow the crowd, thanks."

With that Neville left the room, shuffling down the stairs and emerging into the common room. A few people greeted me, and I greeted them generally before slipping out of the common room along with a crowd of young girls. They led him through the castle until he was swept into a far larger crowd, no longer just Gryffindor kids, but ties of all colors from all four houses suddenly mingled around him, pushing toward the doors of what he presumed was the Great Hall.

Then he saw her, skipping a few people away. Her tiny body bouncing along with her pale blonde hair. The girl.

**bah this is strange but I like it. review please?**

**hannahk**


	3. Chapter 3

Her name was Luna. Luna Lovegood to be exact. Though when Ron introduced her he called her Loony Lovegood which promptly called for the girl with pretty brown curls, Hermione, to slap his arm, turning to me. "Neville, that's Luna, remember? Luna Lovegood? She's in Ginny's year." She prompted, nodding to the ginger girl on the other side of Harry. Ginny was Ron's younger sister by a year, Neville had learned earlier that day.

They were currently seated at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. The table in front of them was a smorgasbord of the most delicious looking food Neville had ever seen, but he hadn't eaten a morsel. No, his eyes were on the Ravenclaw table, where Luna was sitting, beech blonde and pin straight hair falling to the small of her back. He inwardly quarreled with himself as he attempted to plan their interactions, fretting over how to make the girl he knew nothing about but knew him fall in love with him in only three days. He'd never been charming. Nor debonair. His track record with the "ladies?" Zilch. He'd never so much as talked to one of the girls at the school he'd attended only days before - though to be fair he'd never really talked to the boys either. He'd never been much of the social butterfly.

But here things were different. He had friends, several of which were lovely girls. He wasn't quite sure how the entirety of Hogwarts school seemed to know who he was, but he didn't dare question it. The moment he questioned this strange magic, the moment it all evaporated into smoke and he'd be back on his duff in his Uncle's cottage by the Sound again.

At the close of breakfast Neville stood from the Gryffindor table, swimming against the current of students swarming from the hall to their respective classes toward her. He murmured, "excuse me," under his breath, but the students merely questioned his actions with a lifted eyebrow and he pressed on. Students had all evacuated the Hall, but still she sat in her seat at the table, drinking Pumpkin Juice from a large, ornate goblet. "Luna." I greeted, sliding in place beside her.

She lifted her gaze from the peculiar paper resting on the wooden table to his face. "Ah, Neville. I'm sorry about your brain." She commented dreamily. "I'm sure Pogzles are behind it."

Neville frowned, watching her dreamy expression as her eyes flitted down to the paper again. "Pogzles?"

She nodded, tossing her legs over the side of the bench and standing up. "They're creatures that like to take other people's memories. It's tragic, really."

"Oh." Neville replied, standing up and looking down at her again.

She smiled a bit, stepping away. "Well I really should be getting to class. I'll see you later then, Neville."

Neville watched, bewildered as the girl walked away, suddenly understanding why earlier Ron had called Luna "Loony Lovegood." While not a kind nickname to give, it was pretty dead on. The girl seemed to be three colors of crazy. Of course this would be Ursula's assignment. _Get the girl with her head in the clouds to fall in love with you. It'll be easy._

Neville groaned, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Easy my ass." He mumbled before shaking his head and glancing at the clock. "And now I'm late for class."

* * *

Neville was camped out in the library after his classes that day, not reading, no, but taking advantage of the silence. The library was impeccably quiet and full of books, giving it an air of knowledge unparalleled by any of the classrooms he'd attended all day. Under other circumstances, he would be skowering the shelves for books on plants - a fascination of his for years - but instead now he was holding up one of the tables near the back, hovering over and pretending to work diligently on an essay he knew nothing about.

He was instead thinking about something else. Something he was equally as clueless about. He was trying to think of a way to captivate the attention of a girl who most of the school believed was mad. She didn't particularly seem like the girl who cared if she had a boyfriend or if she ever found love and got married and all that mushy stuff, no. She seemed like she would be perfectly content living alone at 40 with her pet Pixies without a care in the world.

His quill tapped against the table and he bit bottom lip. "Neville?" A soft, relatively feminine voice asked and Neville's interest peaked. Maybe there was hope for Luna yet. He lifted his head slowly, a small smile slipping onto his lips, but when his eyes reached the face of the girl speaking he deflated just a bit. This was a girl of average height with long brown hair that swept across her forehead and danced in waves to well past her chest but not quite as far as Luna's. Her eyes were a caramel brown, smile innocent and sweet. He had no idea who she was.

"Hi..." He began, biting his bottom lip and trying to think of a tactful way to ask who in Merlin's sake she was.

The girl blushed suddenly, looking away. "Oh!" She exclaimed, groaning quietly. "I'm sorry." She announced, fleeing quickly, brown hair tossing across her small shoulders.

"Looks like Hannah's got a little crush on you." Hermione said from where she'd been seated a few feet away, head nuzzled into a huge book while piled herself upon a huge arm chair.

Neville sighed, leaning his head on his folded hands. Of course. Another girl had a crush on him. How lovely.

**oh my god oh my god oh my god plot bunny.**

**Yeah. I totally made up Pogzles. Sue me. **


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